Disney to show off a new Marvel mystery project at its first gaming showcase

By George Yang August 15, 2022

Disney announced the Disney & Marvel Games showcase for September 9 at 1 PM PT during the D23 Expo. The presentation will have new announcements and reveals from a variety of different teams including Marvel games, Lucasfilm Games, and 20th Century games.

Notably, the showcase will reveal a sneak peek at a new Marvel ensemble game from Skydance New Media. Games such as Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and Disney Dreamlight Valley will be there too. Judging by Disney’s teaser trailer, Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora could make an appearance as well.

JUST ANNOUNCED: Watch the Disney & Marvel GAMES SHOWCASE on Friday, September 9 – live from #D23Expo 2022! https://t.co/uZcDYdUZKA pic.twitter.com/RJ67ooTR2F

— Disney D23 (@DisneyD23) August 15, 2022

The Marvel game from Skydance New Media was announced last year, with Amy Hennig and EA veteran Julian Beak helming the project. It’ll feature a completely original story within the Marvel universe and marks the studio’s first AAA game development venture.

Hopefully, we’ll get some more substantial information about this upcoming Marvel project, such as its intended launch platforms and release window. It’s billed as a narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game, so it’s likely to be a single-player affair rather than the much-maligned games-as-a-service fiasco that 2020’s Marvel’s Avengers by Square Enix was.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns originally was supposed to release on October 7 but was delayed to 2023 to an unspecified time. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was also delayed to a 2023-24 window.

It’s currently unknown if EA’s Star Wars Jedi Survivor will make an appearance during the showcase. The Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel was revealed back in May and is slated to release next year for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…

Gaming

Marvel Snap’s Friendly Battles set a new bar for its post-launch support

marvel snap friendly battle mode impressions key art

I’ve been hooked on Marvel Snap ever since I gained access to its beta in May 2022. The core, fast-paced gameplay has allowed the card game to sustain itself on just one match type and very few game-changing updates outside of the Token Shop. That feeling probably won’t last forever, though. If Second Dinner wants to keep the Marvel game relevant after a strong launch period, it needs to keep expanding and spicing it up in exciting new ways. The new Friendly Battle is a solid first step for that.
MARVEL SNAP's NEWEST Feature | BATTLE MODE | Play With Friends Now!
Marvel Snap’s developers teased a Friendly Battle mode that allows players to create private games with friends for a long time. The mode finally arrived on January 31 and lived up to expectations. In fact, playing it whetted my appetite for the future of Marvel Snap as I think about how the game could expand and improve with more social systems and modes to keep players coming back for years to come.
The strengths of Friendly Battle mode
Marvel Snap’s Friendly Battle mode utilizes the same six turn, location, and card ability-based formula Digital Trends has praised thoroughly. What’s different is the length of the fights and who you can compete against. Typically, matchmaking is random, but Friendly Battle allows players to Create and Join matches via a generated Match Code. This means there is finally an easy way to play Marvel Snap with your friends, showing off your deck or testing new strategies with them.
These aren’t just one-and-done matches like normal, though. Instead, each player takes one of their decks into a round-based battle where they start with 10 health. Whoever loses each round will also lose health equal to the Cube Value. This keeps going until one player runs out of health, with higher Cube Value stakes from Round Five and onwards, ensuring that Friendly Battle retains the speediness of the default game mode. The health-based setup is an enjoyable variation of Marvel Snap’s core formula.
It gives another purpose to snapping during a match outside of account progression. Meanwhile, the round-based setup allows players to stretch their strategic muscles as they adapt to each new round, finding the opposing deck’s weaknesses and trying to avoid their own. Plus, even when I was joining games using codes players posted on Marvel Snap’s Discord, there was a greater sense of community in discovering what decks other players were using and communicating with my opponent more via the in-game messages and emotes.

Seeing the strengths of Friendly Battle mode, it has become evident what elements of the game the developers need to focus on and expand going forward.
Setting a precedent
Looking at games like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, their communities are what have allowed those card games to stand the test of time. Marvel Snap may be just as good as those from a gameplay standpoint, but it needs interested players to continue supporting it over the long term if it wants to be more than the mobile gaming fad. With players getting increasingly mad at its microtransactions and progression, it is a critical time to renew interest.
Friendly Battle is an excellent first step for that. This new mode finally gives Marvel Snap players a more direct way to connect and potentially set up tournaments that can keep the competitive scene alive. Second Dinner still needs to add more social features in-game, though. Second Dinner teased that it considering the addition of Player Guilds last year, and being able to join a Guild or at least Friend another player’s account would encourage players to stick around and play and socialize with their friends more.
Being able to trade cards with other players is a feature I’d like to see because of how odd Marvel Snap’s progression is. For something like that to work, though, Guilds or an account friending system are necessary prior additions. The necessity of a dedicated social community of players also means that the developers must add more new modes so veterans have a reason to stick around and new players have new reasons to join.

Gaming

Marvel Snap’s Winterverse event introduces new cards, variants, and more

Marvel Snap art highlights Winterverse variants for Rogue, Ebony Maw, Patriot, and Rockslide.

The latest Marvel Snap update kicks off the Winterverse event, bringing many holiday-themed variants and brand-new cards to the mobile card game.
The two new cards coming to Marvel Snap this week are Darkhawk and Sentry. Darkhawk is a superhero who first emerged in the 1990s and has a techno-organic body with glider wings. In Marvel Snap, he's a 4-Cost, 1-Power Ongoing card that gives +2 Power for each card in the deck of your opponent.
Meanwhile, Sentry is a hero that was introduced in 2000 that has Superman-like abilities, but is connected to an evil entity called the Void that's just as powerful. In-game, that translates to Sentry being a 4-Cost On Reveal card with 8-Power that can't be played at the right location, as playing Sentry will cast a -8 power Void card there.
https://twitter.com/MARVELSNAP/status/1605269381176758272
We don't know if Sentry and Darkhawk are Series 3, Series 4, or Series 5 cards yet. It will take some time for Marvel Snap's meta to evolve and really prove whether or not Darkhawk and Sentry are all that useful, but they do both have interesting abilities. Regardless, keep an eye out for them in Collector's Reserves and in the Token Shop.
They're not the only part of the Winterverse event, though. From December 20 until January 2, Second Dinner is giving away in-game awards for logging in each day. These range from 100 credits to a special Nick Fury card variant featuring Samuel L. Jackson's signature. Five new winter-themed card variants will also start to show up in the shop and Collector's Reserves. You can now find Winterverse cards for Abomination, Ebony Maw, Patriot, Rockslide, and Rogue.
A Winterverse bundle that includes a Sunspot Winterverse Variant, Avatar, 2000 Collector's Tokens, 8000 credits, 100 Sunspot Boosters, and a "Tacos After This?" title will be added to the shop in the coming days as well.
Marvel Snap is available now for iOS, Android, and PC, and it even made Digital Trends' best games of 2022 list.

Gaming

Marvel Snap will fix its biggest problem by adding a new shop

marvel snap token shop update fixes big problem

Marvel Snap from the former Hearthstone devs at Second Dinner made a strong first impression when it launched and is considered one of the best mobile games of 2022. Unfortunately, one issue that's plagued the game since its beta days: it's impossible to unlock specific cards intentionally. Thankfully, the next season of Marvel Snap will change that. During a developer update video teasing The Power Cosmic, Marvel Snap's next in-game season, Second Dinner detailed the Collector's Token and Token Shop system that will make targeting cards easier.
Currently, Marvel Snap cards are split into Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 sets, and players earn cards within each series randomly before progressing to the next. The random nature of it means that players might have to wait for a long time before they actually get the helpful cards they want. Once The Power Cosmic season begins, players will be able to purchase specific cards with a new type of currency called Collector's Tokens. This is not a paid currency, players can only earn it through gameplay rewards after Collection Level 500.
Players can then spend Collector's Tokens in the Token Shop, which features one new card every eight hours. Players can pin cards they really want, earn Collector's Tokens to spend, and then purchase the specific card for themselves via the Token Shop. It'll still probably be faster to get cards through raising your collection level, but giving a non-randomized way to earn cards is much appreciated as a longtime Marvel Snap player.
Token Shop and The Power Cosmic Season | Developer Update | December 2022
Of course, the addition of this system increases the need for more high-level cards, so Second Dinner will also add brand new Series 4 and Series 5 cards when The Power Cosmic season rolls around. The following heroes are part of this new Series.

She-Hulk
Titania
Luke Cage
Absorbing Man
Maria Hill
Agent Coulson
Helicarrier
M'Baku
Attuma
Orka
Galactus
Valkyrie
Super Skrull
Shuri
Baster
Thanos and the six Infinity Stones